The
Stabilisers have released their first album ‘Last Chance Saloon’
on Italian label Skipping Musez late last year. This will followed
by a 4 track EP, ‘Evil Picnic’ to be pressed on authentic
crackly 7” vinyl by another Italian based label, Nicotine.
The Stabilisers current line up gelled when guitarist Allan
Crockford chanced upon the original trio of Jon Bott, Simon Corbey
and Francis Braithwaite reluctantly providing the soundtrack to a
tasty brawl in a seedy SE London pub last year. As bass player with,
amongst others, '80s garage pioneers The
Prisoners, The James
Taylor Quartet (JTQ), Billy
Childish's Headcoats and current psycho-mod faves The
Solarflares (fifth album released imminently), he had himself
played in front of some mixed audiences over the years. The
Stabilisers ability to hold their nerve and their tuning whilst the
audience destruction-tested the pub pool cues on each others heads
impressed him almost as much as the massively catchy, powerful and
often funny set of punk-pop they managed to deliver to the otherwise
engaged occupants of the makeshift dance floor. After the gig, as
the band took cover in the toilet, Allan offered to join the band.
He did this partly because he was convinced he might be the missing
piece in their punk rock puzzle, but also so they had an extra pair
of fists - an important consideration if they were survive many more
nights on the London dive circuit.
They decided to take Allan up on his offer. With more than 30
albums to his name, he could bring to the band a wealth of musical
experience, and, more importantly, a load of amplifiers they could
borrow. And a van. In turn, they offered him the opportunity to fill
a gap in his musical portfolio - a chance to play loud 6 string
guitar in a band that sounded like an unholy crossbreed of early
Clash, XTC, the Buzzcocks, Generation X and The Boys, with the added
genetic fingerprints of The Who in ‘65, the Ramones, The Damned
and some of the more angular garage bands of the late 60's.
The result is a band whose makeup comprises an anarchist
vegan medical student, a disgraced former peer and active eco
warrior, a minor musical cult figure and a leading software hacker.
An odd mix of personalities that almost counter-intuitively
manages to produce music as tightly focused as the laser sight on a
long-range rifle. Why not let yourself be one of their
targets….
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